russell russell (arussel at bgnet.bgsu.edu) wrote:
: In a previous article, wahchan at liverpool.ac.uk (Mr. W.Y. Chan) says:
: (body of Wah's reply snipped. I'll leave that for others to comment upon.)
: >PS. If I had said "Hello girls" like you had said above I would have been
: >flamed by some of the others here, now I try my best not to...:)
: Wah,
: I believe your observation would fall under what was referred to in a
: previous women's studies class of mine as "in-group terminology". In the
: US, at least, it seems to be common for groups which have and are
: experiencing discrimination to refer to themselves using terms which
: those in power have used as pejoratives against them. For example, many
: gays and lesbians, when they are are in similar company, refer to
: themselves as queers, dykes, etc. It is a way of symbolically taking back
: some social power and also of poking fun at those in power, in my opinion.
: However, these words still retain their hurtfulness if used by those in power
: (read: if you don't belong to that group. you don't necessarily have to be
: rich, white, and male in this context). I hope this explains the apparent
: lack of response to Eve's word choice. Of course, I also noticed that Eve
: was writing from Spain, so her explanation may be entirely based on
: cultural differences. Anyway, this was my reason for not taking offense
: at her salutation.
: Any comments from those more learned in women's studies than I?
: Amy Russell
: Dept. Biological Sciences
: Bowling Green State University
: Bowling Green, OH 43403
:arussel at bgnet.bgsu.edu: --
: our love is like my parents' love | Amy L. Russell
: except | Bowling Green State University
: i won't wait until you die to leave you. | arussel at bgnet.bgsu.edu
Well it does seems Eve had made her point pretty clear to me, she wanted
solidarity between women and that more women in a position of employment
should choose women and objected to the idea that normally these women
had taken men instead. There maybe reasons based on individul's suitability
with regards to experience, quailifications, skill etc taken in as a factor
to employ the right person but to choose one person from another because of
gender, or as Eva puts it "solidaity between women" as a way of givving
women equal footings sounds to me like reverse descrimination and its
something even most clear thinking feminist I know would be against.
Wah.